Good Airflow/Silence Balance for Video Editing Rig

[Nervly]

Hey, everyone!

 

My job consists of mostly video editing and some motion graphics. I mainly use Premiere and After Effects for this end. I usually work with either 1080p60 or 2160p30 footage, and sporadically 4k at 120fps too. I'm from Portugal.

 

My current setup is as follows:

- CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 3700x

- RAM: G.Skill Trident Z RGB 16GB (2x8GB) 3200Mhz CL14

- GPU: NVIDIA RTX 2080 Ti

- MOBO: Gigabyte X570 AORUS ELITE

 

- SSD #1: Samsung 850 EVO 500GB

- SSD #2: Samsung 970 EVO Plus NVMe M.2 1TB

- HDD: Western Digital Blue 1TB 7200RPM

 

- CPU Cooler: ADM Wraith Prism Stock Cooler (which can get loud and am planning on replacing it with a Noctua D15 in the future)

- Case: Kolink Observatory w/ Stock Case Fans (which make a big portion of the noise)

 

 

I'm looking to upgrade my case since I did the terrible mistake of getting a Kolink Observatory 3 years ago without knowing what airflow is, and let me tell you, this case's airflow is BAD, at least with the stock fans.

It was a budget case, so there's that. When idle or under light load (Opera, Discord, Telegram, Voicemeter Banana) my CPU runs at 60ºC - 70ºC and my GPU at ~60ºC the whole time.

When under heavier load (SteamVR (don't even need to boot up a game), exporting a project in Premiere/After Effects), they'll typically go up to the 75s - 80s ºC. 

Because of this, my computer constantly sounds really loud, even at idle.

 

Switching just the case fans wouldn't quench my thirst of getting rid of this case, so I'm looking to get an entirely new one with a good balance between airflow and silence, that doesn't have a glass front panel like my current one does.

Yes, I know you can't have a case that excels at both, but a good balance between the two is mostly what I'm looking for, something that doesn't sound like an airplane taking off once I boot up SteamVR or exporting a video.

 

I've looked at a few but I'm never really sure what the best option would be. I have preference over white cases with tempered glass on the side.

 

Fractal Torrent has a nice design and seems to be at the top of the charts with good temperatures with its stock fans (in fact, slapping Noctuas in it increased the temperatures), according to Gamers Nexus, but it is AWFULLY loud at 50db with its stock fans at max speed, though noise-normalized to 36db keeps it at pretty acceptable temperatures (CPU 45´ºC & GPU 54ºC over ambient, which I think is around 20ºC for their tests. This would put them at 65ºC and 74ºC at max load, which is what my stuff runs at when idle). The problem is this case is very expensive and kinda out of my budget, costing 236€ where I live.

 

Lian Li Lancool 215 seems to be a pretty good option from what I've seen. It's a bit loud with its stock fans at 38db, noise-normalized to 36db keeps the temperatures at 46ºC for CPU and 52ºC for GPU over ambient (so add ~20ºC to those) which is also pretty acceptable, especially when compared to my current situation. This case is within my budget at 95€. 

The problem is, I'm not really sure how loud (in db) my case is and if it is louder than this one would be or not. 

 

Fractal Define R6 is a case I've been eyeing for around 2 years now. Its noise levels with stock fans at max speed are only 33db, though temperatures can go a bit high at 56ºC over ambient for both the CPU and GPU, so around 76ºC for both, which is around the same and sometimes a bit less than what I get right now at load. If ambient is truly 20ºC, then that means these, at idle, run at less than 30ºC, which are temperatures I've never seen with my current computer in any situation. This case is at pretty much the limit of my budget, stretching it eversoslightly, at 165€. So the thing for this one is, getting only 33db at max speed is really heccin' good, but I'm worried if getting 75ºC+ temperatures on both my GPU and CPU might make them throttle during video editing and stuff? I'm not extremely worried about exporting times but mostly their performance while scrubbing the timeline (although I'm aware the type of storage I use has a lot more influence but I wonder if CPU/GPU thermals can be a significant factor aswell). The case is pretty, I like that the front panel can be opened easily like a door so I can lower the temperatures that way if I absolutely need to and I'm not sacrificing tempered glass for less noise.

 

One other question I absolutely want to ask is, about the Fractal Define R6 still, its review at Gamers Nexus doesn't have their standardized fans test (where they replace the stock fans with 2x NF-A14 in the front and 1x NF-F12 in the rear) so I was wondering if replacing its stock fans with Noctuas would keep the noise levels at ~33db but lower the temperatures further? I'm mostly asking because that's clearly not the case with the Fractal Torrent (or at least in their scenario) so I'm wondering if this case would benefit from it.

 

I think those are mostly my questions, basically I'd like a case for my video editing rig that's not super loud when at load but doesn't throttle my components either, and that it's actually quiet when idle. Feel free to suggest other cases as well.

I've messed around the speed curves in the BIOS but I can't get anything to make them work properly. I notice that my CPU's temperature is always going down to 58ºC which makes the fan immediately ramp up to 68ºC and then it cools down to 58ºC, rinse and repeat. No amount of changes I made to the speed curve made it stable so I'm guessing the case is a big problem here with the airflow. This has been a thing from the start so I don't think it's the thermal paste needing replacement either, though I'll definitely be applying new one when I replace my CPU cooler. 

 

Here are the videos I took most of my information from:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YtyWUAjmmZA&t=953s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHGAJYcgBHI&t=713s

 

Hopefully I'm not forgetting any details but feel free to ask any questions if needed and sorry if any of this sounded dumb!

 

Thank you for your attention!

[DD08]

Hi Nervly.

I like the Torrent, but if its outside the budget, then I would recommend Lian Li Air Mini, and then maybe add some Arctic P12/P14 fans(cheap and effective), Should you wish to try water cooling, I would also recommend an Arctic 280 or 360mm Liquid Freezer 2, which should fit well into the Lian Li case. 
I have the Air Mini case, with a NZXT 280mm AIO and Noctua fans, running a 2080ti Asus Strix. The radiator is front mounted in push/pull configuration, but a tight fit. : )
If you occupy all fan interfaces in the case, you should have sufficient airflow. Front/Bottom  intake -> Top/Rear exhaust.
Good luck.

BR. DD